hill
noun
a natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain.
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Hil.
hill
1 American
[hil]
/ hɪl /
noun
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hills
plural
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a natural elevation of the earth's surface, smaller than a mountain.
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an incline, especially in a road.
This old jalopy won't make it up the next hill.
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an artificial heap, pile, or mound.
a hill made by ants.
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a small mound of earth raised about a cultivated plant or a cluster of such plants.
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the plant or plants so surrounded.
a hill of potatoes.
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Baseball. mound.
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the Hill. Capitol Hill.
verb (used with object)
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hills,
present (3rd person singular)
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hilled,
past participle, past
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hilling
present participle
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to surround with hills.
to hill potatoes.
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to form into a hill or heap.
idioms
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go over the hill,
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to break out of prison.
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to absent oneself without leave from one's military unit.
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to leave suddenly or mysteriously.
Rumor has it that her husband has gone over the hill.
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over the hill,
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relatively advanced in age.
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past one's prime.
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Hill
2
American
[hil]
/ hɪl /
noun
-
Ambrose Powell 1825–65, Confederate general in the U.S. Civil War.
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Archibald Vivian 1886–1977, English physiologist: Nobel Prize in Medicine 1922.
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James Jerome, 1838–1916, U.S. railroad builder and financier, born in Canada.
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Joe, 1879–1915, U.S. labor organizer and songwriter, born in Sweden.
hill
1
British
/ hɪl /
noun
-
-
a conspicuous and often rounded natural elevation of the earth's surface, less high or craggy than a mountain
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( in combination )
a hillside
a hilltop
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-
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a heap or mound made by a person or animal
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( in combination )
a dunghill
-
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an incline; slope
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informal beyond one's prime
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slang military absent without leave or deserting
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strenuously and persistently
verb
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to form into a hill or mound
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to cover or surround with a mound or heap of earth
Hill
2
British
/ hɪl /
noun
-
Archibald Vivian. 1886–1977, British biochemist, noted for his research into heat loss in muscle contraction: shared the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine (1922)
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Damon Graham Devereux, son of Graham Hill. born 1960, British motor-racing driver; Formula One world champion (1996)
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David Octavius 1802–70, Scottish painter and portrait photographer, noted esp for his collaboration with the chemist Robert Adamson (1821–48)
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Sir Geoffrey ( William ). born 1932, British poet: his books include King Log (1968), Mercian Hymns (1971), The Mystery of the Charity of Charles Péguy (1983), and The Orchards of Syon (2002)
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Graham. 1929–75, British motor-racing driver: world champion (1962, 1968)
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Octavia. 1838–1912, British housing reformer; a founder of the National Trust
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Sir Rowland. 1795–1879, British originator of the penny postage
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Susan ( Elizabeth ). born 1942, British novelist and writer of short stories: her books include I'm the King of the Castle (1970) The Woman in Black (1983), and Felix Derby (2002)
hill
More Idioms
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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hillsimple
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hillssimple
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have hilledperfect
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has hilledperfect
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am hillingprogressive
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are hillingprogressive
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is hillingprogressive
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have been hillingperfect progressive
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has been hillingperfect progressive
Past
-
hilledsimple
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had hilledperfect
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was hillingprogressive
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were hillingprogressive
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had been hillingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of hill
before 1000; Middle English; Old English hyll; cognate with Middle Dutch hille, Latin collis hill; compare Latin culmen top, peak ( see column, culminate), celsus lofty, very high, Gothic hallus rock, Lithuanian kálnas mountain, Greek kolōnós hill, kolophṓn summit ( see colophon)
Explanation
A hill is a high ridge or mound of land, not as tall as a mountain. A house on a hill has a great view of the surrounding countryside, and very little chance of being flooded. You can hike or drive up a hill — a gentle upward slope, in either case. An accidental or deliberate mound of stuff is another kind of hill, like a hill of snow in your yard, or a hill of trash at the dump. What's considered a hill in mountainous India — a height of up to 10,000 feet — is absolutely a mountain in Great Britain, where a hill is defined as an elevation of less than 2,000 feet.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Workers swarmed the mound of metal like ants on a hill.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
"We have also received reports that there are stranded people higher on the hill," Uprety added.
From Barron's ● Sep. 8, 2026
Tono says these communities' traditional practices, known as uma bukit or "hill farming", are rooted in the idea of maintaining balance with nature.
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2026
As teenagers growing up in the area, they climbed the staircase barefoot, sprinted the hill overlooking the Pacific and stretched their limbs on the shoreline.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026
I thought for a second that this was it, that the Confederates had finally succeeded when they retreated back down the hill.
From "Glitch" by Laura Martin
I had seen the smoke rising from the Pentagon as I traveled to the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Muslim civil rights organization I co-founded, the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026
That relationship takes physical form inside the Melrose Hill shop, unfolding through a two-part imagined landscape that evokes an alien presence settling into the familiarity of a suburban setting.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
The chain got its start in Vancouver, British Columbia, when Brian Hill, a Canadian retail scion, opened the first boutique in 1984 in a shopping center there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 10, 2026
Jay-Z's first headline solo show in the UK in more than a decade saw him celebrate hip-hop culture alongside a host of special guests, including Lauryn Hill, Wyclef Jean and Giggs.
From BBC ● Sep. 5, 2026
Silent, they walked out toward the Beverly Ferry—then turned and tramped back across town toward Gallows Hill.
From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham
The hills, glittering with celebrity, seemed to symbolize a culture and people that existed largely on the surface.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
It’s big, too, nearly 10 miles long, and peaky, with some squat concrete buildings up at the crest of one of the hills, and a single telegraph pole.
From Slate ● Sep. 8, 2026
Gales are expected for exposed coasts and hills in western Scotland.
From BBC ● Sep. 4, 2026
“When I look at it, I see the hills outside of Wellington or people with moko tattoos—things that just make me instantly think of home.”
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
The sun was setting behind the brilliant green hills of the Andean countryside.
From "The Way to Rio Luna" by Zoraida Cordova
Master of the games of the fair hilled Taillten, King of Tara of a hundred conflicts; Chief of Fodla the noble, Aed of Oileac who died too soon.
From Ireland, Historic and Picturesque by Charles Johnston
They are set at the distance of three or four feet apart, and are hilled, and kept continually free from weeds.
I think I hilled those spuds, too, with furrows—or a crop of Indian corn I put in later on.
From Joe Wilson and His Mates by Henry Lawson
The corn, as soon as shot out of the earth, is weeded: when it mounts up, and its stalks are an inch big, it is hilled, to secure it against the wind.
From History of Louisisana Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: Containing by Le Page du Pratz
These were immediately taken on board, and consisted of two sheep, an elk ready hilled, and a few fowls, with some vegetables and fruit.
That hilling up promotes leeks with longer white shanks.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 31, 2024
Prevailing industry practices often involve the concentrated application of fertilizers during the planting or hilling phases, particularly in Atlantic Canada.
From Salon ● Nov. 28, 2023
He mentions that the Potawatomi word for “hill” is a verb: “Hills are always in the process of hilling, they are actively being hills.”
From New York Times ● May 27, 2020
On an afternoon in March, Loïc Gouzer, a specialist in contemporary art at Christie’s New York, attended a hilling session to survey several works that had been secured for an upcoming auction.
From The New Yorker ● Jun. 27, 2016
The hilling up of the graft may be left for a few hours, except in very hot, dry weather.
From Manual of American Grape-Growing by U. P. Hedrick
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
